Spiral feed conveyer for heat-treating furnaces



Am WINTER l SPIRAL FEED CONVEYER FOR HEAT T REATiNG FURNACES Filed Sept. 25,- 1928 2 sheets sheeiz, 1

INVENTUR Mug/ M W/ATffi.

' ATTURNEY April 1930; MWMER "Ifi%-4,294

SPIRAL FEED CO NVEYERTOR HEAT TREATING FURNACES Fileii Sept. 25, 1928 2 Sheets-:Sheat 2 [NVENTOR Mum/w /y ma ATTURNE Y Patented Apr. 15, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MURRAY WINTER, OF WRENTHAM, IBIIASSAGHUSIETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE SURFKCE COMBUSTION COMPANY, INC., 01 TOLEDO, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK SPIRAL IB JZLEIZD CONVEYEB FOB- HEAT-TREATING- FURNACES Application filed September 25, .1928. Serial No; 308,314.

' This invention relates to improvements in \conveyers. It is an object of theinvention to provide a conveyer'whichshall consist of a 1 a furnace for heat-treatment. The various features of novelty and invention will more fully appear from the detailed descriptionv taken in connection with the accompanying 1o drawings forming part of this specification.

. Referring to the drawings wherein the preferred form of the invention is shown:

Fig. 1 shows theinvention embodied with a heat-treating furnace which is more or less diagrammatically shown, the conveyer shaft proper being in side elevation and the supporting elements at the near side of the shaft being omitted for clarity of showing; I

Fig. 2 is a transverse section on line.22 of Fig. 1 and showing how the outer end of the conveyer shaft is supported;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section showing how the intermediate portion of the conveyer shaft is supported;

Fig. 4 is a view generally corresponding to Fig. 1 but showing shaft supporting means within the furnace;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged scaletaken substantially on whatwould cor :0 respond to line 5-5 of Fig. 2'and showing the preferred manner of .providing against relative axial movement of the shaft and its supporting rollers;

Fig. 6 is a detail view of one ofthe shaft supporting rollers and Fig. 7 is a fragmentary view showing how relative axial movement of the shaft may be prevented by providing a spiral groove in a not shown. The furnace may be heated'in any suitable manner as by gas or electricity. As shown, the furnace is adapted to be heated by gaseous fuel, reference numeral 16 indisupporting roller instead of non-spiral ribs through which the annular. objects may passv out of the furnace, as into a quenching tank,

eating a series of openings in the side walls of the furnace where gas burners, not shown,

' may be positioned. shaft having a spiral guide way along which I 5 ring gears and the like may be'moved into The conveyer comprises a screw shaft generally indicated by letter S. The ring gears or other annular objects to be conveyed are indicated by letter R. The shaft S is shown as extending into the furnace through an opening 12 in the end wall thereof and as terminating short of the opposite .end wall of using the invention. The objects R are hung on the outer or front end of the shaft S and as the latter rotates the objects will be moved along the shaft byfollowing the channel or guide way 18 formed by-a screw thread 19. Where the objects are circular, the rotation of the shaft will impart a slow rotation, to the obj ects,-a feature which is very desirable since a cold spot on the object is thus prevented.

The shaft may besupported by means wholly outside of the furnace as shown in Fig. 1 or partly within the furnace as shown in Fig. 4:. Where the supporting means are wholly outside of the furnace the shaft must be strengthened to prevent it from bending as will be readily appreciated. As shown in Fig. 1, the shaft is strengthened by enlarging its diameter from'its point of support nearest the furnace and gradually tapering it to its dischargeend. The enlarged portion is preferably hollow.

I The shaft is supported in a cradle of rollers in a manner now to be described. Extending from the shaft are two banks and B of what for convenience of description may be termed spiral webs or fins 20am 2l,respectively, the webs being radial extensions of the screw thread 19. The diameter of the webs depends on the internal diameter of the that a proper clearanceis provided between the inside bottom of the object and the bot- I tom of the Web as clearly shown in'Figs. 2 and 3,it being understood that the inside top of the object rests on the core of the shaft at all times.

The web bank A rests on two lain cylindrical rollers 22 suitably supporte in a frame 24. These rollers engage with the web's at points sufficiently removed from the bottom 5 of the webs to ermit the annular objects to ass between t e rollers as clearly shown in ig. 3. These rollers preferably also serve as driving rollers, being driven in any suitable manner as by a chain drive 26 receiving power from a motor 28. Top rollers are not necessary since the weightof the shaft serves to hold the shaft properly in place on the rollers as will be readily understood.

The web bank B is supported between pairs of top and bottom rollers 30 and 32, res ectively, suitably supported in a frame 34. The bottom rollers 32 bear the same space relation with respect to the bottom of the webs as do "the rollers 22 for the web bank A. It is of course necessary to providemeaus for preventing axial movement of the shaft and such means will now be described. Referringmore particularly to Figs. 1 and 5, it will be noted that the top rollers 30 are pro- 25 vided with non-spiral ribs or ridges 36 of uniform height and axial spacing, these ribs extending completely around the individual rollers. These ribs are adapted to coact with w non-spiral grooves 38 formed in the periphery of the webs or fins 21 of the bank B; or, to ppt the matter in another way, the grooves tween the ribs 36 are adapted to coact with teeth-like projections 39 formed on the periphery of the webs 21, the sides of the teeth- 5 like projections being at right angles to the axis of the shaft S. It will now be seen that each complete cylindrical surface of the webs which ooacts with the ribbed rollers is provided with a series of grooves 38 and teeth- I to like. projections 39, the lateral or axial spacing thereof being the same as that of the ribs and grooves on the rollers, and as a consequence thereof relative axial displacement between the ribbed rollers and the shaft is effectuall l'evented. It will of course be understoo t at it is a matter of choice whether the top In Fig. 7, I have shown a modified form of means for preventing relative axial displacement between the shaft S and a coacting roller. In this form of the invention a roller 40 is provided with a spiral groove 42 which runs in a direction which is opposite from that of the spiral web on the shaft, the periphery of the web being preferably provided with teeth 44 adaptcdto enter corresponding depressions 46 in the roller. The roller should be of the same diameter as the webs for satisfactory operation and on account of its large diameter :hhoptld be positioned above the axis of the or bottom rollers shall be ribbed as afore- 'saldfor whether the main supporting rollers In Fig. 4 the shaft S is shown as supported partly within the furnace by Iain rollers 22', the diameter of the-core of t e shaft being substantially the same from end to end and the spacing of the rollers bein the same as that shown in Fig. 3. The outside supporting rollers 22 are ribbed in the same manner as are the rollers 30 previously described and also serve as driving rollers. Since the shaft is supported adjacent its ends, top supporting rollers are not necessary as regards holding the shaft in place in its cradle of supporting rollers. i

A conveying apparatus of the character described is particularly well adapted for heattreating ring gears. As the conveyer shaft r0- tates the gears also rotate and are uniformly heated throughout. By reason of the fact that the gears are hung from the shaft, a furnace of limited length will have a relatively greater capacity than a furnace of similar length having a horizontally disposedroller hearth on which the gears must be laid flat.

\Vhile the conveyer has been particularly designed for feeding ring gears into a furnace, nevertheless the conveyer is not limited in its application to such use. By reason of the fact that the ring gears project downwardly from the lower portion of the shaft, the conveyer lends itself to other uses. For example, annular objects could very readily be painted by allowing the lower portion of the objects to dip into a tank containing paint it being remembered that the object rotates as the shaft rotates. Other uses will readily occur to those skilled in the art.

Various changes in details of construction may obviously be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Vhat is claimed is:

1. In a conveyer, the combination of a horizontally disposed rotatable shaft, spiral means on the shaft forming a'guide way for objects hung on the shaft, means arranged alongside of the shaft for supporting it for rotation, said supporting means contacting with the periphery of said spiral means below the axis of the shaft laterally of the bottom thereof, an axially fixed element disposed alongside the shaft, and means on the spiral means cooperating with said element to prevent axial displacement of the shaft.

2. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of a rotatable shaft having a spiral guide way, rollers for supporting the shaft, said guide way being bounded by relatively deep walls'where the rollers coact with the shaft, and means for preventing relative axial displacement between the shaft and the supporting rollers.

3. In a convcyer, the combination of a horizontally] disposed rotatable shaft, spiral means on the shaft forming a guide way for objects hung on the shaft, means arranged alongside of the shaft for supporting it for rotation, said supporting means' contacting with the periphery of said spiral means below the axis of the shaft laterally of the bottom thereof, the diameter of the shaft opposite said supporting means being increased by a web on the spiral means, and means coactingf'.

with said web for preventing relative axial ject.

clear the bottom of the screw thread, and said supporting means beingarranged laterally of thepath of travel of said ring ob- In testimony whereof I aflix my signature. I MURRAY WINTER.

, displacement between the shaft and its'sup-" supporting means.

away frointhe we 35 porting means.

4. In apparatus of thecharacter described, 7

the combination with a rotatable shaft and rotatable supporting means therefor, of a web projecting radially from and extending spi-- rally aroundlthe shaftand coacting' with said means to maintain the shaft in spaced relation, with respect thereto, said supportingmeans engagingthe periphery of] the web at pointslocated laterally of a vertical plane through the axis of the shaft, whereby objects hung on the shaft may be moved, lon' 'tudinally thereof without interfering wit said.

5. In apparatus of the character described,

the combination with a rotatable shaft and.

. between the supporting means and'-web,,and a spiral guide way formed asf'a continuation of the web for moving the objects toward and 6-.' In-apparatus of the character-described, the combination with a longitudinally ex-y tendingfcfylindrical body, of rollers'forming a cradle for supporting saidbody for rotation, v

a relatively deep spiral channelformed in the j surface of the body where it contacts. with said rollers-the ma on either. side of said channel being of reduced diameter, whereby objects-may behung on'the reduced portion,

Y -and means on the reduced portion of the body for moving "said objects into said channel.

7 j jI-na conveyor, the combinationi witha rotatable shaft having aridge extending spi rally therearound and forming walls between which ring objects may be hung on the shaft, of a web formed as aradial projection of a coacting with said web to placement of said shaft.

8. In a conveyer', the combination with a screwshaft on which objects of ring form may be, suspended with the axis of the object below theaxis of the shaft, of means tangent with the shaft for-supportingit for rotation,

said shaft whereit c'oacts with said means being of a diameter greater. than the internal diameter of. the ring object to be conveyed, the screw being continued through the part of enlarged diameter, the depth of the screw thread at the enlarged portion being such the t pgrtign or. the ring objectii portion of the ridge,-a nd ribbed'rolling means prevent axial dis- 

